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Astro City Crack Repair

NFGx

NFGx

Professional
Joined
Sep 29, 2022
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Location
Brisbane.au
So my New Astro City cab has some cracks between the control panel and the main body, as if someone sat on the control panel or used it to reach the top shelf, or something. It happened before I bought it. Anyway, I wanted to fix it.

AstroCrack-1.jpg

The metal brackets between the panel base and the monitor mounts were bent, so I bent 'em back using a 5lb sledge and a mounted vice. It only required small taps, the metal is very soft. But this doesn't help the crack situation, the metal is far too soft for that.

So first, I poured superglue into the crack, then jacked up the front of the panel base with a pair of toolboxes and a book. This closed the crack nicely for a few hours while the glue set.

AstroCrack-3.jpgAstroCrack-2.jpg

Then I did a crash learn by doing course in fibreglass repair, where I learned the following:

  • Airflow is really important, that stuff scours your lungs. You'll be smelling it all day.
  • Wear both gloves. You might think you can save 20 cents by using only one for all the sticky work, but haha, you cannot.
  • Acetone is great but you'll use a lot, and next time there's a fishkill in the river near your house you'll wonder was it me?
  • It's fucking glass, it's right there in the name. Don't fuck around with it.
  • If your partner's not very forgiving, it's a bad idea to do this in the living room.
I sanded down the inside of the cab, used a small brush to apply the resin, added the fibreglass (weave, not chopped, for maximum lateral strength), and another resin layer. It went very smoothly. Tomorrow I'll sand it down and add a second layer. The day after that I'll pull the toolboxes out and see if it holds.

AstroCrack-4.jpg
 
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Okay, this repair looks awesome.

I, (and I am sure many others here) have the same crack, (I have both sides of the cabinet 😔) so I’m very interested in how this works out for you.

Also, this made me laugh out loud 👇
NFGx said:
If your partner's not very forgiving, it's a bad idea to do this in the living room.
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NFGx said:
If your partner's not very forgiving, it's a bad idea to do this in the living room.
Click to expand...

Emphasis on this. Fiberglass work shouldn't be done indoors at all. The fumes from the resin is not something you want lingering in your house. Also wear a respirator if you end up sanding it after it dries. Silica/Glass in your lungs is not a good time.
 
kikaso said:
Okay, this repair looks awesome.

I, (and I am sure many others here) have the same crack, (I have both sides of the cabinet 😔) so I’m very interested in how this works out for you.

Also, this made me laugh out loud 👇
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this is exactly what i was telling u about.
 
Zepherino said:
Emphasis on this. Fiberglass work shouldn't be done indoors at all. The fumes from the resin is not something you want lingering in your house. Also wear a respirator if you end up sanding it after it dries. Silica/Glass in your lungs is not a good time.
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Very good advice, thank you. I had started this indoors 'cause it was such a small patch - about 10 x 5cm. I figured anything done to it would be in very tiny amounts. But yes, when the first layer is cured I'll drag it outside for the sanding and second layer.

For whatever it's worth I've been doing a lot of sanding on the rusty old CP, and I've been doing THAT outside. ^__^;
 
That's awesome work man! Are you going to do a full paint job and putty/bog the external side?
 
mR_CaESaR said:
That's awesome work man! Are you going to do a full paint job and putty/bog the external side?
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Yeah, I can't leave it looking the way it is. Pretty much have to strip it all back and start afresh.
 
For the CP, I suggest soaking the entire panel in Evaporust. No scrubbing/sanding required. The only thing is that it'll eat away the anti-rust coating, so you'll need to redo that.
 
A brief update!

I put 3 layers of fibreglass on the inside of the worse crack, and two layers on the other side. My worry is the tension the shell is naturally under. That crack wants to stay open, like a lot, and so it's fighting against that fibreglass patch without anyone putting weight on it at all.

But, after taking off the strap holding everything in place, it held... For about 30 seconds. It made a ghastly CRACKing sound, but I can't see any visual indication of separation or release. So... Maybe it was settling in to its new permanent position? I dunno.

I went looking for different glues, and found some stuff that was made for the type of plastic the cabinet was made from. But it's like $200 AUD for the cheapest, smallest quantity, and you know I think I will give the fibreglass a chance to fail before I go looking for solutions like that.

(As an aside, I've seen a lot of conversations wondering what the cabinet was made out of, and like, it's written on the inside of the panel base and on the back of the cabinet itself, and what's the mystery??)

--

I've also started looking around for an autobody shop to do the paint, but it's hard finding anyone keen to do the job. Like, how is this different from a handful of car parts? Weird.

More to come. ^__^
 
Maybe try plastic weld? It's a solvent and I have had good success with it on nearly all plastics I've used it on. Be careful as it literally melts the plastic, so use on the no visible side obviously.
 
I will keep an eye out for this thread. Got the same crack as you on my NAC, and i tried repairing it with no luck. Seems like it needs something really strong, since those are very high stress points. Maybe needs to focus on a bigger area?
 
So, an update. After the last fibreglass layer was applied I decided to stress test the machine before painting it, in case the crack came back. And here we are, a month later, and it's still holding! After many hours of enthusiastic play, and at least once forgetting that it was possibly fragile and putting my weight on the corner of the panel while crawling beneath it, there's been no movement.

So the next step is sanding and filling the outside, then painting it.
 
Awesome stuff!

Are you painting yourself or getting it done professionally?

Either way, you're going to need decals. Keep in my @hursit's side decals are probably the most accurate astro decals as it has the uv glow and is the correct colour green unlike you see on many variations.
 
mR_CaESaR said:
Are you painting yourself or getting it done professionally?
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I can't find anyone who'll paint it professionally. Every time I ask, I say 'arcade machine' and they hear 'weird fucking guy wants something fucking weird' and they ghost me.
mR_CaESaR said:
@hursit's side decals are probably the most accurate
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Has Mx. @hursit got a website or a thread somewhere?
 
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